


The Little Detective

by Frankielovesballet



Category: Le Petit Prince | The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Artsy, Crossover, Don't try to understand the logic, Fairytale setting, Gen, Kid!Lock, Magic Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-17 03:53:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1372921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frankielovesballet/pseuds/Frankielovesballet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"How on earth did you get here little man?" he inquired.<br/>The little boy just huffed as though John had said something very rude and repeated himself: "Can you draw me a heart?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Detective

**Author's Note:**

> I may (definitely) have an obsession with The Little Prince and it is currently my mission to get everyone I meet to read it

_“But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you.”_  
 _― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, **The Little Prince** _

 

* * *

 

Once, when John Watson was 6 years old, he saw a glorious picture in a book called "True Stories From Battle" that showed a brave soldier protecting a woman and child and little John decided right there and then that that was what he would grow up to be. After some thought he drew a picture of himself as the brave soldier protecting the woman and child.

What he showed this to his family they asked him if he would be frightened of battle but he answered: "What should I be frightened? I'm _saving_ them!". Then his family would nod sagely, pat him on the head and tell him to lay aside the war. "Study  anatomy, biology and all about medicines instead," they said. So, after many years, John became a doctor who treated colds and sprained wrists and the stomach flu. Yet he never forgot about the first drawing he ever did; the one of him protecting the woman and child. So John became an army doctor. He went all over Afghanistan with his very handy first aid kit patching up some people and shooting others; just like the soldier from his picture.

He served for a long time and was happy for the first time in years. He went many places by helicopter (because a good doctor always gets there as fast as he can) and only ever crashed once. It happened in the middle of the Registan Desert when they were caught in a sand storm. Our doctor was the only one to survive and was knocked unconscious for a few minutes. You can imagine his surprise then, when he was awoken by a very serious little voice. "Please. Draw me a heart."

"Mph?"

"They said that I'm supposed to have one-"

Quick as lightning, John was on his feet. He look around and saw all of his friends body's. He was the only living soul for miles and miles. He turned to the mysterious little boy who was looking at John as though he was quite the most stupid person he had ever seen. He had curly black hair and very white skin, like ivory, and was wearing a striped shirt and tan shorts. Needless to say, he looked very odd to John who had just woken up to find that he was the only living soul for miles and miles. He stared at the boy in amazement before clearing his throat. "How on earth did you get here little man?" he inquired.

The little boy just huffed as though John had said something very rude and repeated himself: "Can you draw me a heart?"

Here John was, stranded in the middle of the desert, miles and miles from another living soul, surrounded by his dead friends and what could he do but find a pen and piece of paper. With one more baffled look at the child, he set about doing the drawing. It was very neat and anatomically correct because, as we have seen, John was an excellent doctor. He even made sure to label the different parts. When he was done, John handed it to the boy who studied it for a while before tucking it safely away. Then he walked away and John, having nothing better to do than wait our here miles and miles from another living soul, followed him. After a while the little boy asked: "Is it different, having a heart?"

"I wouldn't know little man, I've always had mine."

"Oh!"

And so they lapsed into silence. Suddenly John remembered his manners; "What's your name?" Then, as if he had said nothing at all, the boy clapped his hands and exclaimed: "Wouldn't it be wonderful to be a detective? That's what I'd like to be!"

Now John, a bit miffed at being ignored, tried again. "Where are you from?" But the little detective did not answer. The doctor, seeing it was a lost cause, gave up asking questions. Without warning, the boy stopped walking to pick up a skull in the sand. Holding it up and turning it this way and that he said: "We all look like this inside right?" John nodded, very sure because he was a doctor. "And," the boy continued, "we each have two leg bones and one jaw bone and two big toes. Everyone had ten fingers, one nose and thirty three vertebrae. We have two lungs, thirty two teeth, one liver and a single silly appendix!" He reddened and began crying. Drawing him in close to his chest, John wondered what was wrong. "Please, won't you tell me what's the matter?"

The boy in his arms sniffed and answered: "Why does everyone else get a heart and not me?" He scrubbed at his eyes and wiped his nose on his sleeve. It was quite the most pitiful thing John had ever seen so he responded very gently: "Dear little detective, I've just drawn you one."

"I'm not a detective yet!" The boy just scowled and stormed off, wondering why people were so stupid. John, feeling wholly wretched, could do nothing but follow him.

 

* * *

 

"Do you know, I once thought that Redbeard was the only dog in the universe?"

John was startled; the little detective had not spoken for some time. It was dark now and the stars were like a blanket above them.

"That was, of course, because he was the only dog I had ever seen. There were no dogs in my place."

"And where is your place little man," the doctor asked, not expecting an answer very much.

"But then They took him away," the boy continued. "He liked chasing his tail. I think he was the best dog anyone could have hoped to have."

"And why did they take him away?"

"Because I started to love him I think, even though I don't have a real heart." He was silent for a moment, gazing at the stars. "Sometimes I look up at the stars and imagine that he's on one of them. And then do you know what happens? Why poof! My dog is chasing his tail on all the nighttime stars. Isn't that wondrous?"

John smiled a melancholy sort of smile and said: "Yes little man, it is."

The boy sighed and asked again: "Why don't I have a heart?" But John (for all his study of anatomy, biology and medicines) could only tell him that he didn't know.

* * *

 

After that, the little detective talked more and more. He told John all about his travels and his home.

Boredom, he said, was a very poisonous plant that grew on his place. "It's perfectly safe" he went on, "as long as you pull it up right away. Every morning I would go around wearing big clumsy gloves and pull out every new shoot as soon as it sprouted."

John told him that he'd never seen this Boredom before and the little detective informed him that it probably doesn't grow very well in deserts, that it is very ugly and smells of fish.

* * *

"On my way here, one of the planets I stopped at had a very nice girl on it. She wore a laboratory coat and had lots of people like your friends on her tables."

Suddenly he understood; The little detective was from another planet! "Little man," he ventured, "What sort of planet are you from?"

"She was kind to me but I'd didn't know I was supposed to have a heart then so I was mean to her." He paused and John was afraid that he would cry again. "I wish I had been nicer to her."

* * *

The next planet the little detective told John about was where his brother lived. Now, you must remember, he had never had a brother before so he pushed the other boy over when he called him a freak. "He said it was because I didn't have a heart".

Then he visited a planet full of children. They were very mean and pushed _him_ over when they saw that he had no heart. He turned to John. "It didn't hurt then, so why do I feel so sad now?"

The little detective's last stop was the place where Redbeard lived. They spent a long time playing together and he forgot all about the other children. If fact, he was having so much fun he did not even see Them come to take Redbeard away.

"I don't think that They should have taken him away"

* * *

Finally, he landed on earth in the middle of the Registan Desert. Few people ever go out into the desert so he was truly lucky to have found John. The doctor, in fact, had just realized how thirsty he was. It was very warm in the desert and walking all day and all night without stopping had given him a dry throat.

"Little man," John asked, "Is there a town nearby?"

The little detective replied: "Oh yes, we are almost there! Do you think I can find a heart there?"

John thought for a moment. Then he thought some more. Finally, he knew! "Little man," he said softly. "Don't you see?"

The little detective shook his head and stamped his foot. "I don't know what you are talking about!"

John laughed and told him: "But you already have a heart! It's made of that kind girl and your mean brother; the other children and Them. It's made of Boredom, big clumsy gloves, Redbeard and all of the stars that he plays on."

So finally the little detective understood: "Oh! Hearts are not just things you find, are they? You have to make them all by yourself. but you can't know what is happening and no one tells you how to do it. You just have to know pain and love and only realize it after. You said my heart was made up of the kind girl and my mean brother; the other children, Them, and Boredom. Big clumsy gloves, Redbeard and all of the stars that he plays on. But you forgot the most important thing! It's made of ash blond hair and hot sand because my heart is also made of you!"

The little detective was crying now and smiling because a heart is an awfully big thing to have, but then he stopped smiling because he remembered. "Tomorrow it will be exactly one month since I came to your planet." John wiped away a few tears of his own and turned to him. "Now that I have my heart I should very much like to go home." The boy turned red. "An-and I need to learn how to love myself before I start loving anything else." He looked very young and very sad and a little bit scared.

"Little man, I shall miss you very much," John said. "Because you are a part of my heart too."

The little detective was crying again: "I know you will. And when you place your hand over your heartbeat, just so, you will feel consoled because somewhere, I will be doing the same exact thing. And then, I hope, you will smile, for somewhere a dog is chasing its tail and a little boy is laughing!"

* * *

All that day and all that night they walked on across the sand. It was very early in the morning, just after the sun came up, when the little detective finally stopped. He turned to John and said: "It won't hurt me, I promise. Now that I know love, this body is just an old skin." 

And John found that his mouth would not work.

"Old skins aren't sad, because the new one is always much better." It was almost a question.

And John had to sit down because his legs had stopped working.

"Don't be sad! I'm not, now that you have given me sand and the color of dawn in your hair, a heartbeat and love." Placing his hand over his new heart, the little detective laid down and did not get up.

* * *

Six years passed and John never told anyone the story. The little detective had been right; they were very close to a town and so John was rescued from the deadly desert. When his family asked why he was so sad, he said: "Some of my friends died." And then they thought they understood. When he was shot he was worried that if he left the desert he would never see the little detective again. His family made him come home though, so he hadn't much choice.

The doctor visited a therapist once a week and never told her about the little detective because he was afraid she would tell him that the boy wasn't real.

He would place his hand on his heart often because living had made him very sad. In fact, he only ever laughed when he watched a dog chase its tail.

_One day, quite without meaning to, John ran into a friend who introduced him to a most extraordinary man._

_"Oh little man!"_

 


End file.
